LEOMINSTER -- Ahead of a vote Monday on Mayor Dean Mazzarella's $120 million spending plan for fiscal 2018 -- which the school business administrator warns will force devastating cuts in the schools -- two councilors have proposed City Council measures aimed at improving budgeting in future years.

Councilors-at-large John Dombrowski and Sue Chalifoux Zephir have filed a resolution requesting a state audit that would explore the city and School Department's budgeting practices.

Dombrowski also submitted a petition to the council asking for the adoption of a provision within the state's general statutes that allows city councils to appropriate more money to a school budget beyond what has been proposed by the mayor as long as it doesn't exceed the revenues of the annual Proposition 2 1/2 tax increase.

Chalifoux Zephir

Although the city is already moving forward with a tax increase increase, which is expected to bring in an additional $1.7 million in tax revenues, Dombrowski said he just wants to make sure councilors are aware this could be an option for them in the future.

"It's readily apparent from the hearings over the last couple months, culminating in the meetings Tuesday and Wednesday night, that there are significant issues present and better ways to be doing things," Dombrowski said Friday.

In their resolution seeking a state Department of Revenue audit, Dombrowski and Chalifoux note that a review of the Leominster public schools financial operation completed by the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials in 2010 "outlined many inefficiencies in the accounting systems between the School Department and City's administration.

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The report recommended the district have direct access to the system so that it could take care of its purchasing from start to finish and reduce the time it takes to process invoices.

The resolution asserts that many, if not all, of the inefficiencies from the 2010 report have not been adequately addressed and that many of them exist within other city departments.

"There is really just an overarching theme of a lack of integration and coordination between the business offices of the School Department and the city," Zephir said.

Even if the council were to vote in favor of the DOR review, it would still be up to Mazzarella to request it -- which he declined to do when the City Council recommended it in 2011.

When asked by councilors during his Tuesday night budget presentation about the possibility of a Department of Revenue audit, Mazzarella again balked at the idea, explaining that the city already does go through annual reviews and follows the state's best practices for budgeting.

However, Dombrowski maintained that the DOR audit would only help Leominster.

"These reviews aren't aimed to be critical; they're supportive and help communities to better," he said Friday. "Even if we are doing good as the comptroller says, good can be better."

With the council scheduled to vote on Mazzarella's $120,869,649 city budget Monday night, Dombrowski said that he has yet to hear from other councilors whether they're planning on voting for or against it.

"It's a difficult situation and everything is going to be raised Monday night," he said. "I think people are going to spend a lot of the weekend thinking this over."

Although unable to speak for her fellow councilors, Chalifoux Zephir said Friday that she does not intend to vote for the budget.

"I can't even image how the School Department will make cuts in staffing and programs to meet the cuts the mayor has submitted," she said.

If the council does not approve Mazzarella's budget, the city would be forced to operate on what is known as a "one-12th budget."

Ward 4 Councilor Mark Bodanza, who chairs the council's finance committee, explained that the one-12th budget would either remain in place for 15 days only to be replaced by the mayor's budget or the city would have to operate on continuing appropriation budgets, which breaks the city's budget up on a month-by-month basis, for a period of no more than three months.

"I see that as utter chaos," Bodanza said. "I might not like the level of school funding, and believe through cooperation we can get additional funds, but to vote this down and put us in that position serves no purpose."

"The ramifications of going through with a one-twelfth budget will create difficulties, but I weigh that against the consequences of this budget and how the school department will be decimated by these cuts," Zephir said.

Mazzarella's draft of the budget, which calls for a $5.6 million reduction in spending on school expenses and transportation from the district budget approved by the School Committee, has led to public protests from local residents, students, and teachers. Although the School Committee's budget did account for 74 employee layoffs throughout the district, school Business Administrator Glenn Fratto warned the City Council on Wednesday that the mayor's budget could cause hundreds more layoffs.

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